Japanese high school freshman launches startup to cut food waste, opens fruit daifukumochi shop

On June 19th, 2021, a new branch of the Kanazawa-based fruit daifuku sweets shop Rinrindō 凛々堂 will open in the Kyōdō 経堂 neighborhood of Setagaya Ward, Tokyo.

Operating the store as a franchisee is Soffione Inc., a startup company helmed by Hanaka Usui 薄井華香, a first-year high school student.

Fighting food loss

Usui's parents run a fruit and vegetable wholesale business in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and she has watched them at work since she was a child.

There, she witnessed a large amount of fruit that had only a few skin blemishes, but no problems with taste, being discarded. In order to change this situation, she thought it was necessary to educate consumers, and decided to start her own business related to food loss.

As her first project, she has teamed up with the fruit daifuku sweets shop Rinrindō 凛々堂, which operates shops in its base of operations of Kanazawa, as well as Tochigi Prefecture and several shops in Tokyo and Osaka.

Usui explains her motivation for becoming an entrepreneur at such a young age:

I was not particularly good at studying or exercising, nor did I have any special skills. I hated myself for not being good at anything, and people around me sometimes made fun of me for it. I was so determined to change myself that I wanted to accomplish something on my own. I also wanted to be the first to tackle something that others around me had not yet done. This is why I decided to start my own business. First of all, I will do my best so that the customers who come to my shop will say, 'It was delicious.'

Hanaka Usui, CEO of Soffione Ltd.